Breaking Barriers: Becky Hammon – Becky Hammon had a career with the WNBA playing point guard for the New York Liberty and the San Antonio Silver Spurs that spanned 15 years and earned 6 All-Star appearances. She was named a Top 15 Player of All Time in 2011 and Top 20@20 in 2016. In 2011, she became the seventh WNBA player in history to score 5,000 points.
While her WNBA career is legendary in and of itself, the barriers that Hammon is breaking from the sidelines are what have the potential to send her to the top of card collectors’ chase lists in the near future. She first gained attention off the court, when in 2014, the San Antonio Spurs hired her as assistant coach under Gregg Popovich, thus making her the second woman to ever coach in the NBA. In 2015, she led the Spurs to an NBA Summer League Title as the first woman to ever coach a summer league team. In 2016, Hammon was the first woman to be part of an All-Star coaching staff.
The most recent increase in her popularity came on December 30, 2020 when she became the first female to act as head coach of an NBA team. This, after Popovich was ejected in a game against the Lakers a few minutes before the end of the first half. That game ended in a loss for the team, but the play didn’t change under Hammon’s direction. Coaching a little over one half of an NBA game tripled the selling price of her base autographs and led a gold autograph to be sold for over $300 in February of 2021.
Hammon’s colleagues and players are confident that a permanent head coaching job is in her future. Her pure talent and knowledge of the game are undeniable. In 2018, Pau Gasol wrote an open letter in The Players Tribune that touted her abilities. There are no qualifiers to his description of her. He said it very succinctly: “Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”
Women rallying around and supporting the successes of other women has the potential to bring brand new collectors to the hobby, as well. Stories like Becky Hammon’s will go beyond the sports page headlines into general popular culture. Current and future enthusiasts will be chasing this piece of history in the making. Becky Hammon will be a Head Coach in the NBA. It will happen, and when it does her value in the collectors’ market can do nothing but skyrocket.
Breaking Barriers: Becky Hammon Basketball Cards – Image Gallery
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